LAURENCE O’Neill from Strabane AC took the win in this morning’s Donegal Half Marathon in Letterkenny which had around 1,100 finishers. 

On a dry and clammy morning, the Carlow native clocked 1:15:18, with Paul Finnegan of Armagh AC second in 1:15:57 and Gerard Cuddy from Galway City Harriers third in 1:17:06. 

Caitriona Jennings of Letterkenny AC claimed the honours in the senior women’s race in 1:20:46, from runner-up Pamela Kirk of Road Runners AC in 1:22:38 and Maria McGee third in 1:23:30. 

The wheelchair race was won by Karl Doherty in 1:31:27.

 Speaking after what was his first Donegal Half Marathon win, Laurence said he was happy with his run. 

“I’m just coming back from injury, so I’m delighted with today and good to see the training paying off. That was my first time to run the Donegal Half Marathon. I was sitting in third until after the three-mile mark before kicking on and holding a 3:30-3:35 pace,” he commented. 

“I’m getting ready for the Waterside Half Marathon in Derry, with the Malaga Marathon in December the main target. Annemarie McGlynn is my coach in Strabane AC, so I’m delighted with how things went for me today,” he commented. 

Caitriona Jennings was equally satisfied with her performance in her hometown. 

“It’s great to be back in Letterkenny and I love racing here. Today was amazing. There was a really good turnout and there was great support all through the course. It’s a great advantage when you know the course – you know when to push and when to relax. I decided from early on to run my own race and thankfully that paid off in the end,” she said. 

Having concentrated on ultra running for the last number of years, the half marathon was a relatively short distance for the Dublin-based Letterkenny AC woman. 

“I ran a 90K race in South Africa back in June – that was my goal race for the year, and I was happy with how that went. I found it difficult to get fully recovered but I’ve been building back up and am feeling good again now. I’m actually running a 100-mile race in November in the US. That’s pretty crazy even for me. It’s a new challenge, so we’ll see how it goes,” Caitriona added. 

Donegal Half Marathon Ambassador, Danny McDaid, said the organising committee were extremely happy with the turnout for the annual event that was first held in 2014. 

“It was a massive undertaking, and we did our best to deal with such a large entry. It’s great to see so many people wanting to be involved, so we must be doing something right. The relay section was a great boost to the event – we had nearly 60 relay teams entered this year which was fantastic,” he commented. 

“The late Dessie Larkin, who was one of the founders of this event, wanted to make this known as the people’s marathon and that is exactly what it has become. 

“It was always my ambition to have over 1,000 people coming to Letterkenny to take part in the Donegal Half Marathon and I am so glad that we have managed to do that this year,” Danny added.